Maryland College Football Preview Predictions and Schedule 2011
Ah Maryland. Where do we begin? How many coaches turn in an 8-4 regular season, earn a bowl Game birth and coach of the year honors, only to be fired before getting to coach in the bowl Game? Can you say, raw deal? It’s not as if Ralph Friedgen couldn’t coach. The guy had a career record at Maryland of 75-50 and took the team to 7 bowl Games in 10 seasons. Friedgen shouldn’t have been fired. But don’t shed too many tears. He received a 2 million dollar buy out to his contract and will no doubt land on his feet somewhere. He’s a good football coach.
All of that aside, Maryland did end up with a pretty good replacement. We’ve followed the UCONN football program very closely over the years and have repeatedly told anyone who would listen that Randy Edsell is the most underrated coach in all of college ball. UCONN fans aren’t too happy with the way he left town in the middle of the night, and now Maryland fans aren’t too happy with him replacing their beloved Friedgen, but the guy can coach.
Look at what UCONN has done over the last decade and then consider that this was all done without the best talent. Let’s face it, the UCONN Huskies are known for hoops, not football. They aren’t drawing the best talent in the nation when it comes to football. Yet, Edsall had them in the mix year after year, even playing in a BCS bowl last season against Oklahoma. What you’ll get from a Randy Edsall coached team is a team that plays sound fundamental football and a team that doesn’t beat themselves.
Edsall walks into a great situation with the Terrapins as well. Maryland returns 7 starters on each side of the ball iNCluding a fantastic QB in Danny O’Brien and 4 starters on the offensive line. They’ll have new schemes to learn which comes with the territory when a new coach takes over, so we can expect a growing pain or two, but for Edsall, there really can’t be any excuses. This is a talented team that can compete with anyone in the ACC.
We’re very eager to see if we’ve been right about Edsall all these years. From a betting standpoint we’d look to the season opener at home against Miami. Edsall will want to kick off his tenure with a bang and no doubt each and every practice in the spring and in the new year has been focused on September 5th against the Hurricanes. Give a good coach all that time to prepare and good things tend to happen.
It’s not an easy Schedule for Maryland. We’ll call for at least 7 wins for Edsall in his first year at the helm.
2011 Maryland Terrapins Football Schedule
9-5-11 MIAMI FL (Mon.)
9-17-11 WEST VIRGINIA
9-24-11 TEMPLE
10-1-11 TOWSON
10-8-11 at Georgia Tech
10-15-11 CLEMSON
10-22-11 at Florida State
10-29-11 BOSTON COLLEGE
11-5-11 VIRGINIA
11-12-11 Notre Dame @LAndover, MD
11-19-11 at Wake Forest
11-26-11 at North Carolina State